Bedroom Blog: News Break

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We had a shoot scheduled this morning focusing on which fruits and vegetables you should buy organic, but the farmer's market got rained out and we had to reschedule. It was too late to set something else set up, so Mel told us to just come in to the station and help where we were needed. As it was a slow news day, we spent most of the morning hanging out and B.S.ing.

"You know what's weird?" Brad mused at one point. "Mel's been coming in at like 7:30 every day."

That was weird. Mel always rolls in 20 minutes after the morning news wraps.

"What does he do?" I asked.

"Closes his office door and stays in there until the news wraps. Then he comes out, goes over his notes, and then goes back in."

"I heard him yelling on the phone the other day," Meg added. "But I couldn't figure out what he was saying."

We all looked at Tex.

"What?" he asked, looking around at all of us. "Your guess is as good as mine."

I scrutinized his face to look for signs that he was lying, but I didn't find anything. Just then a fax came in behind Meg's desk. She grabbed it.

"Whoa, guys, check out this press release," she said. "[Behemoth media company] has just acquired [local competitor] and will be changing the station's format to 24-hour news."

"I thought they did celeb stuff," I said.

"They own like 50 channels," Meg explained. "They're listed right here…" She started reading off pretty much every channel that I watch. I had no idea they were all owned by the same company.

"Can we compete with 24-hour news?" I asked. No one answered.

The rest of the morning was quiet. I can't speak for everyone, but I was trying to figure out what I'd do if we couldn't keep up in the ratings and got downsized. Go work for the 24-hour news network, I suppose.

Meg and I decided to go out for a long lunch together. On the walk over, she brought up the Derrick thing.

"Tell me the truth," she said. "If I went out with Derrick, would it bother you?"

"It would be weird," I admitted. "But not unmanageable. I think you should do it."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Positive."

That settled it, then. While we ate our pizza, she confessed that he'd been pursuing her; sending her emails, calling, texting. "Not in a stalker way," but in a way that let her know he was interested, that he knew she was interested, and that he thought I'd be okay with it. To be honest, him thinking I'd be okay with it bugs me a little. I mean, how does he know?

Eh, it will probably be fine. I just need to deal with the feelings as I have them, I suppose.